Elezi: The result of the recount will be valid, not the Municipal Counting Centers
Following the decisions to recount all polling stations where regular voting in the snap parliamentary elections took place on December 28, the Central Election Commission has removed the dilemmas of which result will be considered final: the one resulting from the count at the Municipal Counting Centers or from the current recount process?
CEC spokesperson, Valmir Elezi, has clarified that it is within the competence of this institution to decide on the recount of polling stations or counting centers and, consequently, the result that will be valid in the announcement of the final election results will be the one that will emerge from the recount process.
The CEC decided to recount all polling stations after a verification conducted in 33 polling stations, which resulted in the candidates' votes counted in the Municipal Counting Centers not accurately reflecting the votes on the ballots.
"The Law on General Elections gives the CEC the right to decide on a recount of votes in any polling station or counting center. In this regard, the CEC has implemented the law, so it is clear which result will apply after the recount of all polling stations: the final results will include the data or results that emerge from the recount process and not from the counting that took place in the Municipal Counting Centers," said Elezi.
Meanwhile, on Friday, the recount of polling stations is continuing at the Counting and Results Center.
"As of January 13, the process of recounting polling stations has been continuing at the Counting and Results Center, which is being carried out based on two decisions of the Central Election Commission, which includes the recounting of all polling stations, 2,557 of them. From the beginning of this process until now, more than 50% of the polling stations, in which the regular electoral process was conducted on December 28, have been recounted," said Elezi.
According to the first CEC decision, dated January 13, 2026, the recount of 914 polling stations was foreseen, while with the second decision, dated January 19, 2026, it was decided to include 1,643 more polling stations, expanding the process as a whole.
